I hate New Year’s Resolutions. They aren’t inspirational or motivational and there isn’t anything magical about January 1st that can make anyone start exercising, change eating habits, stop smoking or bring about change in any aspect of life.
If anything New Year’s Resolutions are a recipe for failure and disappointment. So don’t make one.
The big box gym that I belong to has their personal training staff wearing shirts that say, “I’m your New Year’s Resolution,” or “Make Me Your New Year’s Resolution;” whatever the exact wording is, it’s trite and embarrassing.
This message represents the ultimate in combining a hollow gesture with the New Age laziness that seems to be all around us these days. Just let someone else do it, worry about it, work on it, etc. Slogans and resolutions are meaningless.
The old cliché that action speaks louder than words is never truer than when aimed at these annoying annual pledges. Hearing someone’s plan to change for the new year is as annoying as listening to people talk about “getting in shape for the summer” scant weeks before Memorial Day.
Exercises in futility, are both. And another thing, the more people talk about what they are going to do, the less likely it is that they will follow through. Over the years I’ve had New Year’s Resolutioners come in looking to, “make a big change in their lives,” and talk about being committed to changing everything they do. These folks mean well, but they never really have a chance to be successful.
I think people make grandiose plans for change as way to deal with the unhappiness associated with being in a state of mental and/or physical disrepair, kind of like a security blanket. And the more a person talks about their blanket, the more insecure they are.
If you are going to make a resolution – besides the resolution to NOT make a resolution – keep it simple and keep it to yourself. Don’t set out to make massive, wholesale changes to your eating and exercising habits. Crawl before you walk, walk before you run and all of that one-step-at-a-time stuff.
Oh, and Happy New Year!
